It was (and still is) my favourite setting ever produced for D&D.
I want them to somehow capture some of that old birthright feel, without the setting attached. Also a way to acquire economic power without being blooded, because it's the blooded mechanic that forced it to be Birthright only, even if the highlander aspect of blooded was really fricken cool.
I dunno it's complicated. However, as a setting, Birthright was in my opinion blah, but as a system of play, I still long for those days.
What made birthright awesome was the highlander type feel to some of the mechanics and the really nifty rulership/guild system, where you could run a kingdom, or be a merchant tycoon, ect. Really I thought the setting itself was pretty blah, but at the same time I'd like nothing more but the same feelings I got from building my guilds up and acquiring gold bars, ect. It was a great system with a unique feel.
I want them to somehow capture some of that old birthright feel, without the setting attached. Also a way to acquire economic power without being blooded, because it's the blooded mechanic that forced it to be Birthright only, even if the highlander aspect of blooded was really fricken cool.
I dunno it's complicated. However, as a setting, Birthright was in my opinion blah, but as a system of play, I still long for those days.
Birthright BLAH!!! Outrageous, you sir need a darn good smiting!! ;)
I mainly played the setting without the regent rules as my players and I enjoyed the flavour but were rarely in the mood for running kingdoms.
We loved the racial flavors and the way the awnshegh added that legendary feel to monsters, my players still wince when I say Gorgon :D.
I do agree that in a new iteration blooded shouldn't be essential to running a realm, although I also think it should add a bonus.
However without a setting I would rather they didn't bother.
I want them to somehow capture some of that old birthright feel, without the setting attached. Also a way to acquire economic power without being blooded, because it's the blooded mechanic that forced it to be Birthright only, even if the highlander aspect of blooded was really fricken cool.
Yeah, that was my main beef as well. I loved the domain system, but it was so closely tied to the bloodline system that trying to use it outside of the Birthright world was a huge pain in the butt.
(Reputation and truth aren't necessarly the same, no offence.)
I think 4E is perfect for it with the cinematic aspect of minions and all. I'd be happy with a single Dungeon article like the Darksun deadly plants one. They could show some Bloodline powers but 4E style.
I do agree that for most people (who want to just play adventurers) there's not muc separating it from Generika. Where it really shines is the politics and highlander feel of the rulers. But it doesn't stop me from hoping.
What do you reckon are the chances of seeing the Birthright setting redone for 4E?
It was (and still is) my favourite setting ever produced for D&D.
If WotC keep to their promise of one setting per year, then we might see such a product for 4e.
However, I doubt it will be a product line like Forgotten Realms and Eberron.
For me, I'm only interested in the Regency rulesystem. If I can separate the deity bloodline aspect from it (the "divine right of kings" have taken on a literal meaning here), it would be useful for other settings.
So far what I've been thinking is a Blood Feature at first level for both blood domains, and then three powers you develop (an encounter, a utility, and a daily) at following levels (5th, 15th, and 25th, respectively) that you have to choose between your two domains.
Still a work in progress, of course. Actually not even done with all the level 1 features yet...
I've actually been trying to help a friend update Birthright for 4E (not the world itself, but the general rules for bloodlines, etc.). It's interesting trying to adjust everything to fit properly. So far, we're using something like the 3.5 Cleric's domains. Every house has access to about three "domains," and each player picks two to use throughout their character career. Getting what these "domains" do for the character is the rough part, so as to keep them balanced with each other and not too out of balance with the rest of the game.
So far what I've been thinking is a Blood Feature at first level for both blood domains, and then three powers you develop (an encounter, a utility, and a daily) at following levels (5th, 15th, and 25th, respectively) that you have to choose between your two domains.
Still a work in progress, of course. Actually not even done with all the level 1 features yet...
Have you considered making the bloodlines multiclass only classes? That is how they are doing spellscars in FR and I imagine they might do dragonmarks in Eberron like that.(I'm not familiar with Birthright so I can't make specific suggestions on how to do that)
Have you considered making the bloodlines multiclass only classes? That is how they are doing spellscars in FR and I imagine they might do dragonmarks in Eberron like that.(I'm not familiar with Birthright so I can't make specific suggestions on how to do that)
I haven't considered this, no, but to be honest I'm not exactly sure how spellscars will work in FR. Could you do a quick explanation or find a link with that information?
I haven't considered this, no, but to be honest I'm not exactly sure how spellscars will work in FR. Could you do a quick explanation or find a link with that information?
They haven't been released yet, but my guess is the following:
The spellscar will work by being an "incomplete" class. It doesn't grant proficiencies or most of the other class benefits. You can't take it at first level either. Instead there is a multiclass feat that gives you some unique benefit(either an encounter or daily) that represents the class feature you get from other multiclass feats. You likely would also gain a skill to make it equivilent to the other multiclass feats. Then you can take the other multiclass feats to switch out powers lkike you would with a normal multiclass. This would be the only way that you could get these powers. The only real question is how many powers per level would be designed.
The rulership stuff could be done in the form of skill challenges.
With the exception of Acrobatics, Athletics, Endurance, Stealth, and Thievery, most skills could easily be used as part of rulership.
Although Stealth and Thievery might be useful when it comes to impressing thieves guilds. And I suppose Endurance could be useful for Skill Challenges relating to long distance travel.
I have no idea how to handle mass combat, perhaps that too could be put into a Skill Challenge.
Failures could lose soldiers in addition to the normal outcomes. So if a challenge requires 8 successes before 4 failures, perhaps the PC loses X sets of forces no matter what, but each failure also loses another force.